DRAM Price Fixing Investigations

An anonymous reader writes "A few days ago after FTC antitrust charges against Rambus were thrown out, the U.S. Department of Justice and EU have both begun probes against the 4 largest memory makers in accusation of price fixing during 2001/2002. News.com.com has information regarding the pending EU investigation. Anandtech and Silcon.com both have primers on the U.S. investigation. If you thought you paid too much for RAM in 2002, chances are you may have been more right than you originally thought."

Comments

Whee! Here comes another check...

[Anonymous Coward]

...for ~$5.48, from some RAM manufacturer. In 2007.

Man, I just deposited my $13.86 RIAA check yesterday.

If the money keeps rolling in like this from Big Greedy/Evil Organizations, I may quit my day job.

Cheaper memory?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will this lead to cheaper RAM? I hope so, because I really need more... um, what's it called?

Class Action!

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's get a class action going. A voucher for a single chip from a DRAM bank would surely make up for this affront. That and millions for the lawyers.

WTF? Is it still 1993?!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

DRAM?!!!! You benighted savages are still using DRAM?!!!!

Interesting

[JLSigman]

I bought a Dell in 2002, I may have to dig up the papers to see what brand of RAM is in there. Not that it'd make any difference, we wouldn't see our checks for 2 or 3 years, and it'd be just enough to buy half a stick. ;-)

Prices in 2002 weren't bad

[DangerSteel]

Compared to say about 1994-1995 I believe. I clearly remember paying $308.00 for an 8 meg simm. That was 8 times more memory than my first pc had so it was worth it !

Re:I remember when 64MB of RAM was $1000

[grub]

I realized this was happening years ago. My solution? Run with just 16 MB of RAM and a 4 GB swap partition. Sure, my machine gets a bit pokey but it keeps the cartel from stealing my money.

Ahh, my 'ls' from December just finished!

My dad talks about....

[ForestGrump]

Back in the day when ram was little doughnuts, and it cost its weight in gold...

Back in the day when punch cards were book marks...

Back in the day when minimum wage actually kept you alive...

Back in the day...

-Grump

I paid too much for DRAM in 2002!

[Dutchmaan]

but I have good news... .. I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!

WTF? More odd-ball /. comparisons

[NotQuiteReal]

I'd like to see the price of coffee makers go down. Those things seem so simple, I wonder why they are so expensive. A clock radio seems slightly more expensive to produce than coffee maker. Yet the prices are very similar.

I'd like to see the price of a good steak go down. Cows seem so simple, I wonder why meat costs so much. A cheap calculator is far more complicated to manufacture. Yet the prices are very similar.

[insert your nonsensical comparison here]

That's nothing!

[Brando_Calrisean]

Bah, what are you, 12?! I remember shelling out $17,000 big ones for a 1 byte expansioon card! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Why, in my day, we didn't even think in the kilobyte! Kilo-what? See, told you!